5 ms·

Counter examples: Meetup.com and dating sites.

• william42 16y ago
  Dating sites are a really bad counterexample, since they have to advertise(except plentyoffish and OKCupid, which are also free) and TV advertising for an Internet business is a sure sign of a failing business. (Think about every search engine you know. Almost every single one has tried to advertise, except Google. Google never ran ads. All their competitors did.)
  • alsomike 16y ago
    Bing has run ads. Google too, at the last Superbowl. Eharmony has been profitable since 2004, with $250 million annual revenue. Another counterexample: Ancestry.com
  • kscaldef 16y ago
    I'd be curious to hear in what sense you consider online dating sites failures. Your assertion that advertising in other media makes them a failure is, well, just that; an assertion. I don't have any numbers on the financials of the companies, but the general consensus of people that I know is that OKCupid is a fine place to waste time, but that if you really want to meet people you need to go to the pay sites (precisely because the financial barrier-to-entry keeps away all the people who aren't really interested in dating).
    • stcredzero 16y ago
      I've heard that okcupid is an excellent way of meeting new people you actually like -- from friends that use it like this. My short time on there seems to corroborate this.
• rythie 16y ago
  The costs of those sites is relatively small compared to the overall monetary costs of being in a relationship like eating out, social events, travel, presents, marriage etc. So maybe that's why people don't mind paying.